2 comments

Dear Ms. Tanenbaum,
I was looking for reviews of “City on Fire,” when I found the one you wrote for Dissent magazine. It was a great piece–esp these sentences here:
“The scene distills the novel’s humane liberalism: the vision or the hope for peaceful reconciliation between the era’s radicals and the coming conservative tide. As a literary vision, liberalism falters because rather than reconciling dramatic conflict, it suggests there never really was a conflict.”
I haven’t actually read the novel yet, I confess, since it hasn’t yet come to stores in the country where I live. But I’m trusting you on this one.

Thanks! Honestly as I’m sure you can sense from my piece while it has it’s moments there are lots of novels that will better reward your time. IF you’re looking for other books about NYC, I love “Man Gone Down” and “Chango’s Fire,” – I had these recommendations in there as doing what Hallberg couldn’t do, but it got cut from the final version. Thanks for reading.